Mark Cuban is shaking Dogecoin.
After saying last month that the cryptocurrency joke “has no intrinsic value,” the Dallas billionaire owner of Dallas Mavericks said Thursday that he decided to accept Dogecoin as a payment option for fans of his NBA franchise.
“The Mavericks decided to accept Dogecoin as payment for Mavs tickets and merchandise for a very important and surprising reason, because we can!” Cuban said in a press release.
“We chose to do this because sometimes in business you need to do things that are fun, engaging and, hopefully, that generate a lot of PR,” added Cuban. “So we will be taking Dogecoin today, tomorrow and possibly forever more.”
Dogecoin, a coin launched in 2013 as a literal joke about a dog meme by software engineers, is great for kids who want to learn about finance, said Cuban.
“Dogecoin costs less than ten cents. You can buy $ 1 or $ 10 and have fun watching it all day, ”Cuban told Forbes in January. He said he bought some for his son and they “watch and discuss all price movements and why they happen. It’s fun and educational for him. “
Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk raised the price of Dogecoin, claiming he bought some for his young son, X Æ A-Xii.
“I bought Dogecoin for lil X, so he can be a baby hodler,” Musk tweeted.
As of midday on Thursday, Dogecoin was valued at just over 5 cents. This is against Bitcoin, the father of all cryptocurrencies, which has been valued at around $ 50,000 in recent weeks.